The Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV has decided to “maintain an active presence on social media through official papal accounts” on X @Pontifex and Instagram, creating a new one for the latter platform.

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In a statement May 13, the Dicastery for Communication said “Leo XIV inherits the X @Pontifex accounts used by Pope Francis and previously by Benedict XVI,” and a new account has also been opened on Instagram.

“On Instagram, the new pope’s account is called @Pontifex – Pope Leo XIV, and is the only official account of the Holy Father on this platform in continuity with Pope Francis’ account, @Franciscus,” the dicastery noted, adding that the content published by Pope Francis on X “will soon be archived in the appropriate section of the Holy See’s institutional website,” Vatican.va.

It also added that “the content published on the @Franciscus account will continue to be accessible as an ‘Ad Memoriam’ commemorative archive.”

The Vatican noted that “the presence of the popes on social media began on Dec. 12, 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI launched the @Pontifex account on what was then Twitter.”

The account, which is published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic, and Latin, “has a total of 52 million followers.”

The dicastery highlighted Pope Francis’ activity on social media, with “a total of approximately 50,000 posts published on the nine @Pontifex accounts and on @Franciscus.”

“In this way, he has accompanied us almost every day of his pontificate with brief evangelical messages or exhortations for peace, social justice, and care for creation; and he has achieved great engagement, especially in difficult times (in 2020, a year of exceptional numbers due to the pandemic, his messages were viewed 27 billion times),” the dicastery stated.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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